Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he didn’t believe China has handed over all of its data on the coronavirus and suggested there had been an early lack of transparency.

He also cast doubt that China, which has a population of more than 1.3 billion people, had only reported 3,346 confirmed coronavirus deaths.

Fauci said he didn’t “feel confident at all” that China's “low number” of cases and deaths were accurate.

He told Fox News: “I think any of us who have been dealing with this now for the last few months don't feel confident at all that we have all of the data of the originally infected individuals, how long there were people in the circulation or even now, how many deaths there really are in China.”

Dr Fauci added: “That number's really rather a low number, that number surprises me that that number is so low.”

He also criticized that while human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 diseases erupted in China in mid-December, the communist regime told the U.S. and the rest of the world that the virus was only transmitted animal-to-human.

2,261,631 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwideCredit: Rex Features

He said that the Chinese government reporting that human contagion was minimal was “clearly not correct” and was “misinformation right from the beginning.”

Dr Fauci also rejected a conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab.

The precise origins of the novel coronavirus are still unknown, leading some to question whether it was developed by scientists in a lab.

However, Dr Fauci said studies of the virus' genome have strongly indicated that it was transmitted from an animal to a human.

While speaking at the daily White House press briefing Dr Fauci was asked if COVID-19 was “man-made” and may have originated in a laboratory.

He said a study by a group of evolutionary virologists examined the genome sequences of the coronavirus and other bat viruses that evolved.

Dr Fauci said: “The mutations that took to get where it is now is totally consistent with a jump from a species to an animal to a human,” he said.

However there are some in the Trump administration, including the president, who are investigating the claims.

On Friday President Trump said: "We are looking at it. A lot of people are looking at it. It seems to make sense ... We are going to find out."

"A lot of strange things are happening ... We're going to find out.”

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People wearing face masks line up outside Xianning Central Hospital in Xianning

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Chinese officials have faced increased scrutiny over its handling of the pandemic

Dr Fauci's claims came just hours before China added 1,290 deaths to the confirmed toll in Wuhan, bringing the figure to 3,869.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted an unidentified official with Wuhan's epidemic and prevention and control headquarters as saying that during the early stages of the outbreak, "due to the insufficiency in admission and treatment capability, a few medical institutions failed to connect with the disease prevention and control system in time, while hospitals were overloaded and medics were overwhelmed with patients".

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The number of total cases in Wuhan was also raised by 325 to 50,333, accounting for about two-thirds of China's total 82,367 announced cases.

The rare admission of mistakes from Chinese officials comes as the nation faces increased scrutiny over its handling of the pandemic.

China has strongly denied claims it delayed reporting on the virus outbreak in Wuhan late last year and underreported case numbers - which is believed to have worsened the impact on the US and other countries.

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President Donald Trump said the US was trying to establish if coronavirus first crossed to humans during the bat tests

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Asked if he had raised the subject with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said: 'I don’t want to discuss what I talked to him about the laboratory'